


At the Ends of the World

by hotsummersimping



Series: At the Ends of the World [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27337669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotsummersimping/pseuds/hotsummersimping
Summary: a new girl moves into a town and opens a bookstore which gets attention of local cowboy spencer reid, and they eventually start building feelings towards one another.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Series: At the Ends of the World [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996141
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. chapter I

moving into a new town is never easy, especially when the town is small and everybody knows everybody. but for your suprise you recevied a warm welcome. from what you heard there was never a bookstore in town and everybody was getting sick with books in library. you inherited the place from your aunt, who used to run an antique store in it. you immidiately took the chance and fullfiled your life long dream of opening your own bookstore. it was on the hickery street right across the flower store. so practically said you were in the heart of the town.

first week was horrible just a few citizens of town decided to come in, usually older ladies who came in to say that they remember your aunt and how they used to go to church with her every sunday. they never bought anything, you felt they came just so you don't feel bad. whenever no one was in store, which was almost all the time, you sat outside in the chair you put there in case someone wants to dive into their book right there and watched the world around you. for how small the town was the center was always full of people, most of them admiring the flowers in the store across yours. after couple more days people started finding their confidence and came around your store as well. they bought a book or two and then it was quiet again. you never had habit of reading during work time, how could you, you always worked in big town bookstore that was almost always flooded with people, but now with all the time on your hands you sat in your chair and read books. one day when you were dived in your book someone stopped by you. you looked up to see a girl in bright colored clothes with biggest smile in the world on her lips stading over you. 

"hi, i'm penelope. i don't think we had a chance to meet yet" she streched her arm in front of you and you stood up. 

"i'm y/n. nice to meet you" you shyly shook her hand and smiled back at her. 

"i really love what you've done with this place" she walked in, and you immidiately followed her. "back when your aunt had it, it smelled like a nursing home and it scared everyone in town. not gonna lie we all thought it was haunted and that your aunt had died a long time ago and the store was ran by a ghost. oh, oh my god, i'm so sorry i should not speak like that of dead" she covered her mouth with her hand as she looked back at you.

"it's fine, she did seem like a ghost" you laughed and started noticing the sparkles in penelope's eyes.

she walked around for a bit, looked at some books and mostly just absorbed the energy of the store. she hid behind some shelves and you didn't intend following her, you let her take her time. after a while she came to the register with three books in her hands. you took them from her and as you were typing in the price you looked at what she picked.

"hm, so this what you like?" you smiled and looked up at her.

"mhm, i never had a chance to buy her new books i always had to read the old ones in the library. so it's good that i have a place where i can find more" she corrected her glasses and smiled back at you.

"well, i'll make sure i'll get more virginia woolf" you could hear a small laughter coming from her.

"thank you very very much! it was so amazing to finally meet you, seriously you're like the coolest person in this town. if you ever need anything, and i mean anything, you'll find me a little out of town, there's this house and that's where i live." she smiled and headed towards the door where she waved at you.

"oh wait! why don't you join me today for a tea party with me and some other girls from town. i think you'll need it" she winked at you and left the store.

you gathered all of the confidence you could and later that evening you decided to go over to penelope's for the tea party. her house looked like an outside of a dollhouse. it was hard to wrap your mind around what was in front of you. you have never seen such a house. if someone in that moment told you that you just walked into a toy store and they have this huge dollhouse for sale you would've believed them. you knocked on the door and from behind them you could hear an excited squeek that definitely came from penelope. she opened the door and immidiately pulled you into hug. you were suprised and at first taken back but you hugged her back. you handed her a small bag in which you brought some sweets from local bakery. she walked you to kitchen where were three other women. 

"y/n this is emily, jj and kate" you smiled at all of them and you all shook hands. 

you looked around the kitchen and your eyes landed on the kitchen island where a bottle of wine was placed.

"is this really a tea party?" you pointed at the bottle.

"i have two kids and a husband so yes this is a tea party, we just mix wine with tea" jj winked at you and you all laughed.

penelope seated all of you in her sun room where, now for real, you drank tea. you spent there all evening chatting and drinking tea. you found out that emily is the town's sherriff, jj owns the flower store across your store and kate is a teacher in elementary school.  
as the sun was setting down you, emily, jj and kate decided it's a good time to go home. as you were driving home through town you were refflecting on the past three hours. you were thankful that penelope invited you and helped you get to know other people in town. it was a good to know that you now know someone and that you can rely on others in case you need it. 

few days passed since the tea party and ever since your store was flooded with people. it was like the town just found out you were there. it was such an inceridble feeling to see how happy everyone was when they left your store. you could see that they've lacked such a store in the town. you spoke to every costumer you could, to see what they like so you could get whatever people want. you were also trying to make as much contact with people around you as possible, you wanted to asure them that you are too citizen of the this town and that they don't need to be afraid of coming to your store. even the eldery ladies who used to come in just to remember your aunt came to buy books. at some point it felt like the entire town at once was inside. during lunch jj comes to visit, she usually eats lunch with you. she told you many stories about town and about people in it. it was nice to know you have a friend who you can now talk to anytime you have free time. the same goes with penelope, if she's not at her house, she's with you in store constantly talking. you enjoy her talking, the way she talks about things is unique and she always puts so much heart and soul into any story she says. you no more felt alone in the town.

it was a day like any other. the sun was shinning, the wind lightly blowing and you were inside your store putting books into their places. you were in the back of the store by the cash register taking out books out of the box they came in and placing them on correct shelves in their rightful sections. as you were trying to reach a top shelf to place down a fantasy novel you heard the door bell ring and the sound of someone walking in echoed throughout the store. you immidiately looked toward to door to see a tall skinny man standing in the door looking around the store. you have never seen him before so you put down the book and walked to him. he was looking up and down shelves with books and was standing there as if he was waiting just for you to come. 

"hi, how can i help you" you smiled as you approached him.

he didn't say a word and walked towards the aisle on the right. you just nodded your head and turned around to watch him. you didn't wanna seem like you were stalking him so you picked up the first pile of books and started placing them back to the shelves they belonged to. you heard his footsteps on the other side of the bookcase. they stopped for a while and then continued again. you tried to ignore him but the fact that he didn't even say hi was screwing through your mind. you put down the books again and tried to walk to the register as fast as possible but at the same time as you walked out of your aisle he walked out of his and you bumped into each other. you stumbled a bit but before you fell he caught you. his hand stayed on your arm a while after he saved you from a fall and when you decided to look at him you could see he was literally staring down at you. 

"i'm so sorry i-i didn't mean to" he tried to spit out after he realized he was staring at you.

"it's fine" you smiled and he finally let you go.

you again made your way towards the register when he decided to speak up again.

"actually, would you mind helping me?" you turned around and he smiled at you.

"of course, what would you like to help with?" you came back to him.

"i am... i am sorry. um could we do that again? you know the hi thing?" he seemed very nervous.

you nodded and started from the beginning as he requested.

"hi, how can i help you?" you raised your eyebrows to let him know he can tell you what he needs help with.

"hi, umm could you please show me where i could find something from edgar allan poe?" he very obviously spoke with his hands, and after he asked you where to find the author he pointed at a random place in the store with his index finger.

"yes, please follow me" you nodded and started walking to the back of the store.

you walked through almost entire store until you got the the section where he could find anything his heart desired. you showed him from where to where he can find edgar allan poe and let him pick whatever he wanted.

"thank you, y/n" he smiled as he looked down on your name tag.

"you're very welcome" you suggested him with your hand to tell you his name.

"oh, spencer" he smiled and started looking for the right book. 

spencer. you whispered to yourself before you walked away to wait for him at the register in case he decides to pick something. it took him a while to pick, you even had to look if he's okay back there. after few minutes he came to the register with pile of at least 10 books.

"wow, you're planning on reading all of this?" you chuckled as you started packing his books into a bag. 

"yeah, i actually need more books but i'll rather come back later" he smiled and took the bag from you.

"okay, well can't wait to see you again, spencer" you smiled back and as he was leaving he waved at you.


	2. chapter II

couple days has passed since your first encounter with spencer. you were awaiting him everyday, but he still wasn't coming. you were eager to ask jj or penelope about him, but it felt weird asking them who he is. nobody ever spoke of him which you found weird. sometimes you were even questioning if he was even real or your whole meeting was just a fragment of your imagination or even a hallucination. it's true he seemed to sweet to be real but at the same time everyone in town was sweet so he wasn't standing out or anything. he just seemed to mysterious. spencer. his name was circling around your mind at any given moment. it was like he has written it there himself. it felt like he wanted you to remember his name and his name only. your thoughts were going many ways, some ways even scared you. you tried to keep your mind off him during work time because you often found yourself daydreaming about him. it was like you were diagnosed with some sort of disease and now you can't think of anything else but it. but of course he was no disease, just some random stranger who may or may not come back to your shop. 

at this point it was eating you alive to know who he was so when you were waiting for jj to show up for your everyday lunch session you made the decision to ask her about him. your hands were sweating as if you were to ask jj out, but you just wanted to know who spencer was or if he is even real. after jj came it took you a while to build up confidence to ask her about him.

"you're awfully quiet today, what happened?" she noticed, of course she noticed.

"do you know spencer?" you spitted out the second she finished her question.

"i guess so. which spencer are you talking about?" she furrowed her eyebrows.

"some spencer came here few days ago and he barely spoke and then he bought like 10 books" you told her literally all you knew about him.

"oh, spence. of course i know him. he lives little outside of town. he has this farm where he keeps and takes care of cattle. he also likes to be refered to as cowboy, even though he is not really a one. spence is nice and sweet but he can be a little shy at first that's why he barely said anything" you were suprised how much jj knew about him.

"oh. do you know how often he comes to town?" you asked. 

"every few days, why you ask?" she showed signs of serious interest. 

"he said he was gonna come back, so you know i just wanna know when to expect him around here" you shrugged your shoulders to make seem like you were not so much interested in him, and that you only wanted to know who he is.

jj just nodded and continued eating. she had this little smirk on her face as she was a high schooler who was eagerly waiting to tell her best friend that the new girl has crush on the mysterious boy who can barely form two proper sentences. you knew that this conversation was gonna be the topic of this week's tea party before your arrival. you didn't want jj to think you were in love with spencer or you had crush on him because at this point you didn't know why was he the only thing on your mind, so you tried to play it cool and pretended that you only care about spencer because he's the citizen of this town.

"and what about that luke guy. you know the policeman luke? what's he like?" you rested your head on your hand. 

jj went on and told you all about him and then she bridged out to tell you about almost everyone in town. you thought you were safed by your question about luke and that you made jj think that spencer is just like everyone else to you, but as she was leaving she couldn't leave out a cheeky comment.

"gotta go. please don't fantasise about spencer, it could disract you from the job" she winked at you and almost ran out of the store. 

she was right, though. it was time to stop thinking about him all the time. it's not like he's never coming back again. he may not but he seemed to interested in your store that he should be back anytime soon. he does not live in the town so it has to be hard to get to town, especially when your full time job is taking care of animals, he's gotta be a super busy man, who suprisingly finds time to read 10 books. spencer's one strange person. 

you were lucky enough to not daydream about him these few couple of days. but at the same at with every ring of the door bell you immidiately assumed it's spencer. you've been waiting for him for so long that you were starting to loose hope that you'll ever see him again, but luckily on one fine, warm day when you were unpacking the new books that just got delivered, the door bell rang again and when you turned around to see someone else again you were taken by suprise after seeing it is in fact spencer. you smiled, put down everything and made your way to the front of the store to talk to him. you remembered what jj told you, he's little shy, so you were just gonna go over and say hi, you're ready to give spencer all the time in the world to get used to you and your newly opened bookstore. 

"hello, looking for anything particular today?" you slowly approached him. 

"hi, um, no i guess i'll just look around" he looked down at you after looking up to the top of the book shelf he was standing in front of. 

you just nodded, smiled and walked back to the back of the store. you took a big pile of books that belonged to the aisle spencer was in and you came back. as you came closer to him again he smiled at you and then continued looking at books again. his hand was resting on his chin, his eyebrows were furrowed and he was nervously fidgeting his other hand in his pants pocket. you were observing every move he made. he looked super concentrated on books that were displayed in front of him, after while he took out one and carefully flipped through pages. when he was done with flipping the pages of a novel he choose he closed it and pressed it against his chest and started walking towards the register. you wanted to follow him but for a second you realized that it would seem strange if you just followed him around the entire store. at the same time it'd make sense since he's, again, the only costumer inside. it looked like everyone in town fears him and when he actually comes to town everyone hides so he's alone everywhere. 

"hey, y/n, do you happen to have some russian books?" he turned around.

"of course. come." you waved your hand your way to tell him to follow you. "here should be some books by russian authors, and i may have some in the back too" you showed him specifically where the books where.

"i, um, thank you. but i was kinda wondering if you have some, you know, in russian" he tried to explain what he desires with his hands.

"oh, i'm sorry i don't have anything in russian. or any other language besides english" spencer's expression suggested he was little upset.

"it's fine, i'll look through these" he smiled at you and turned back around to look at the books you showed him. 

you decide to stand there in case he wanted to ask you something. as you were standing there you focused on every single move he made. his face was fixed on what was in front of him. his fingers were slightly stroking the spines of books and he was quietly murmuring to himself. suddenly he stopped and concentrated his sight on one specific book. from the side you couldn't tell which one it was but it seemed like he was really thinking about taking it. his finger was softly touching his lips and he continued talking under his breath. after a quiet a while of just starring at the book he took it out, look at it in its entirity and put it on top of the first book he took. he then turned around where he noticed you starring at him.

"picking a book is a quiet a process, i thought you'd be the one who understands the most" he shrugged his shoulders and walked away to different part of store.

you didn't follow him, you just stood there and thought about what you've just seen. you've seen people pick up books in many different ways, but his concentration and his focus was something you have never seen. he enjoyed the process of picking the book so much, it was visible in his eyes after he took out the one he later took with him. after rethinking about what you witnessed you realized you wanted to spend more time with him. you wanted to sit down with him and ask him how does he pick a book. you were ready to flush everything jj told you about him down the toilet and ask him to go have drinks right in that second.

you stood there for a while, thinking how are you gonna ask him, when his voice echoed throughout the entire store.

"y/n, i think i'm ready to pay" his voice sounded little excited.

you turned around and walked down to register. after you charged all of his future belongings you sighed and tried to shoot your shot with him.

"spencer can i ask you something?" you shyly asked.

"of course" he smiled.

"would you, ever, wanna just sit down and talk? like you know about books and other stuff. not now of course! whenever you want, whenever you feel like it" wave of slight embarrassment hit your body and your first instinct was to put your hand to your mouth and slowly biting on the skin of your hand.

"i'd love to. no, seriously i want to sit down and talk. that sounds like a great idea. what do you say this saturday at my house. give me some paper and i'll write you down my adress" he looked incredibly excited, as if he wanted to ask you the same question.

you handed him the first piece of paper you saw and a pen that was laying down on the counter. he took it and started writing down the exact directions.

"those directions are from here, i don't know where you live so i don't want to confuse you. come at any time on saturday, i will be awaiting you" he winked at you, smirked, took his books and walked away.

before he left the store he waved at you. after you waved back you looked down at the paper with directions. you picked it up and looked at it. his handwriting looked so sweet and sincere. you smiled and put the notes into your back pocket.


End file.
